The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Waterperry
St. Mary's Church in Waterperry comprises a nave of three bays, chancel, south aisle, and south porch, built of coursed rubble stone. The west tower with its weather-boarded bellcote is of wood, supported on oak pillars within the church. Indications of an earlier church are seen in the round-headed arch, under which is a 14th-century chancel arch, in traces of an apse, and in footings of its west end now under the floor of the present nave. From the evidence of a scalloped capital, the nave seems to have been rebuilt in the last quarter of the 12th century, and the south aisle was added at the same time. The chancel, built about 1200, has three lancet windows on the north and south and a blocked north doorway. A considerable amount of work was done in the 14th century, but there is nothing to explain the rededication of the church in 1273 to St. Mary. Forty days' relaxation of penance was given to those visiting it. The south aisle was widened; the twolight south-west window, now partly blocked, the east window, now restored, and the south doorway were inserted. The present chancel arch was built and the two windows with excellent early-14thcentury tracery were inserted in the north wall. On the inner responds of the chancel arch are two early14th-century carved corbel heads; reset in the north wall of the chancel are two carved heads (c. 1350), one of a bishop and the other of a woman. The blocked north doorway of the nave is of the same period. The upper and lower doorways of the rood-loft remain in the north-east corner of the nave, and the grooves cut in the stone for the support of the loft are seen at the springing on the west face of the chancel arch. The stone newel stair leading to the loft is built within a projecting buttress on the north-east corner of the nave. The west window is of 15th-century date. The roof of the chancel was reported as 'ruinous' in 1520. Walter Curson (d. 1527) left a legacy for reroofing the church, which was carried out by his widow. Repairs to the fabric were undertaken in about 1756 and again in 1840–4. A west gallery may have been erected, as there is a small round-headed window of late date above the south-west window of the south aisle which probably served to light it or its stairway. In 1777 alterations were made in the boundaries of the churchyard and the walls projecting north and south of the west end of the church were built up. The church contains some notable painted glass. In the north lancets in the chancel there remain 13th-century grisaille quarries, and in the east window is a (? female) head of about 1400 and a Nativity of the 16th century or later. The northeast window of the nave contains repaired figure glass of the Yorkist period of Robert Fitzellis and of his wife Margaret (d. 1469) and her daughter Margery; above in the tracery is a repaired shield of Fitzellis impaling Fawkener (his wife's family) and in the spandrels are the initials 'r.f.' In the north-west window there is early-14th-century glass; in the tracery is a Christ in Majesty and in the east and west lights below are male and female kneeling figures of donors on a background of contemporary quarries with foliage and acorns, which also fills the centre light. In the three-light southeast window of the south aisle are the kneeling figures, in heraldic tabard and mantle, of Walter Curson (d. 1527) and his wife, Isabel Saunders, who gave the window, together with eight sons and six daughters, with an inscription and three partly restored shields of arms below; in the centre light is a restored figure intended to represent the Virgin and Child. In the head of this window are earlier fragments of glass including two made-up shields of Montagu. In the west window of the nave are fragments of 15th-century glass including white and yellow foliage, a feathered angel, '[Mar]garete' in black-letter and the Sun of York. Reset against the south wall of the aisle is a good canopied tomb with ogee head and crocketed pinnacles of 14th-century date: it contains an effigy of a knight in plate armour of a date between 1330 and 1350. In the chancel, on the south wall, is a monument to Sir Francis Curson (d. 1610) and his wife, with epitaph and shields of arms. There is a 17th-century monument to Magdalen Dormer, with a shield above bearing the arms of Curson impaling Dormer, and a 19th-century one by Chantrey (1821) to Anna Maria Rooke Greaves, wife of George Greaves (d. 1819) and only daughter of Joseph Henley. There are ledger stones to (1) Elizabeth (Knollys), wife of Francis Curson, (d. 1723), (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Curson, (d. 1668) with the arms of Curson, (3) Vincent Curson (buried 1580), great-grandfather to Sir Thomas Curson (buried 1682/3), with the arms of Curson impaling those of the Borough of Leicester. There is a brass to Walter Curson (d. 1527) and Isabel his wife, with their eight sons, but the group of daughters and the foot inscription are lost. The palimpsest effigies are about 1440. Nearby in the nave to the west, is the mutilated brass figure of Isabel Beaufeu (c. 1370); and in the aisle is the mutilated brass of a man in armour of about 1530 with the matrixes of wife and two shields and inscription. The font has a plain 15th-century octagonal bowl which has been placed on the remains of an earlier (possibly 12th-century) font. In the nave are some high-backed pews on which the candlesticks remain and with the original hinges on the doors; a 'threedecker' pulpit, the reading-desk of which bears the date 1632, and the sounding-board the date 1677 with the initials 'g.m.' (probably for George Measey, churchwarden). At the west end of the aisle is an interior porch and vestry constructed of late-18th-century panelling of Gothic design brought from the dismantled chapel of the manor-house. In the south aisle there is an achievement of the royal arms dated 1757. In the wooden bellcote are two bells, one of which has a (possibly early-13th-century) inscription: Ave Maria Gracia Plena Dominus Tecum, and the other 'Thomas Rippington, Church Warden. E. Hemins, fecit, 1732'. In the churchyard is a mutilated medieval stone cross with a modern terminal cross on a stepped base, which appears to have been reset in its present position. The Edwardian inventory records that the church owned 'a chalice of parcell gilt, 2 sute of vestmentes, and a cope of satene', as well as the usual altar furniture. The modern plate includes a silver chalice of 1785 and a silver paten of 1699, the gifts of Joseph Warner Henley. There is another paten of 1671, which is decorated with the Curson shield. The register dates from 1538. There are churchwardens' accounts for 1747–91, and overseers' accounts for 1698–1750. Historical information about St. Mary's Church is provided by 'Parishes: Waterperry', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel (London, 1957), pp. 295-309. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp295-309 [accessed 30 March 2023]. St. Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST MARY, Waterperry with Thomley - 1047587 | Historic England. For more information about St. Mary's Church see Parishes: Waterperry | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk). |
